


Stomach bugs

by Nymaria



Series: Falling in Love [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Falling In Love, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt Danny "Danno" Williams, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Ohana, POV Danny "Danno" Williams, criminal machinations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 02:03:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5439380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nymaria/pseuds/Nymaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny is falling in love. </p><p>(How there are not-stomach bugs, a drug bust gone wrong, a chase across the water, bullet wounds and the realisation that feelings sometimes go deeper than one thinks.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stomach bugs

Sometimes there's a funny feeling in his stomach, a weird fluttering and clenching of stomach muscles. It started about a year after moving to Oahu, just a fleeting sensation really and Danny thinks nothing of it in the beginning. Just the food being all weird here in the beautiful hellhole called Hawaii, where it's impossible to even get a decent slice of pizza. And it's not like it hurts or anything, just a little uncomfortable. 

So he dismisses it.  
To be honest he doesn't have much time to give it more than a passing thought, too wary after chasing down suspects all day. Since joining Five-O it feels like his life has turned into an action movie, with McGarrett as the lead, starring either as the dashing hero or crazy maniac depending on his mood that day. More often the latter.  
It took enough energy to keep up with Steve, strange stomach bugs were naturally put on the back burner. 

But gradually he notices a pattern emerge, like his stomach bug is especially happy and active in Steve's presence, which is really unfortunate considering the amount of time they spent together at work and off.

He doesn't realise for the longest time, years in fact, that this is not his body acting up, a strange island-illness or getting old. That in fact, it's a simple symptom of _falling in love_.

The realisation hits him at, maybe not _the_ worst possible time, because that would have meant getting in the line of fire and being shot at, but his timing certainly sucks enough. 

They're on the water, a boat to be exact, and the criminals fleeing the scene of a drug bust gone wrong, are finally cuffed and secured. Steve is leaning over him, looking pale and worried, while Kono and Chin are hovering in the background. Let's just say, Danny is not at all happy at the attention.  
"I'm fine! " he snaps angry and confused, because this is so unbelievably shitty there are no words. He just wants to forget the whole afternoon and everything that happened, maybe even the morning leading up to it. Is that too much to hope for? 

***

The morning had been fairly uneventful, just a little field work and Steve silently bragging with his Navy Seal abilities by apprehending a suspect in a murder case in an olympia-worthy tackle. It would have been enough to threaten the man with a gun, he was small fish, would have surrendered in no time, but no no no, he absolutely had to be tackled down.

Then there was lunch at Kamekona's and trying to avoid eating his newest attempt to revolutionise his cuisine without hurting the big guy's feelings too much. Sometimes Danny wondered if Kamekona was just fucking with them, because his ideas couldn't honestly be that bad, right? 

After that, they were called in by HPD as support, because of a failed drug bust gone down and promptly made their way to the beach.

For whatever stupid reasons those criminal idiots had decided to steal a boat to get away from the police, so of course their team had to go after them, no problem.  
There were shots being exchanged with frankly appalling lack of markmanship on the side of the three criminals. Steve was obviously having the time of his life, Kono was definitely having fun and Chin seemed almost amused. So when one of the guys went overboard, it had been Danny, who'd reacted the first and without thought jumped in the water to go after him. He swam over to the flailing and spluttering guy, or kid really, he realised as he got closer, barely 18 if that and tried to help him reach their boat.  
How an Hawaiian could have trouble swimming, he would never understand, but who was he to judge with his own water phobia. 

Then shit hit the fan and his partners in crime decided on the bright idea to shoot at him and the kid in his arms indiscriminately, which was not great, even with their less than skillful approach. The guy kept squirming against him and repeatedly gasped some variation of 'oh my god'. The only thing to make this situation worse would be sharks circling them and he was so not going to tempt fate by saying that out loud. Not being Steve he'd really no desire to be man-sushi, thanks. 

Suddenly the rain of bullets stopped and he and his squirmy burden could reach the boat at last. Apparently his team was done playing around and they'd quickly managed to take down or incapacitate the two shooters. Frankly he didn't care too much about their health status after almost being shot to death and he just wanted to get out of the water and maybe a beer afterwards to raise his spirits. So he gratefully relinquished the guy into the capable hands of Kono and Chin, helping them to get him on the boat. Then there was Steve leaning down towards him, hand held out and smiling broadly with all his teeth on show. Danny felt kind of blinded by the flash of white, but managed to grasp for the hand and let himself be pulled out of the water. 

Steve was laughing brightly, one hand still gripping Danny's and the other placed firmly on his shoulder to steady him.  
"Out for a swim, partner? "he asked teasingly with a certain spark to his eyes and that was the moment it hit Danny like a sledgehammer right to the chest. His heart stopped for a second, then started pumping frantically and his stomach clenched so hard, he had to stifle a gasp.  
Noticing the warm flesh upon his shoulder and hand, he suppressed a shiver and what the fuck, this wasn't happening! 

Abruptly he tore himself out of Steve's grip, taking his partner by surprise, and promptly lost his balance on the slightly rocking boat. With a cry, he fell backwards, just registering the shocked expression on Steve's face, before plunging into the water and everything went black. 

***

Waking up is a bitch, no other way to say it. He notes in relief that he couldn't have been out for long, since the ground he is laying on is unsteady and gently rocking from side to side, which meant they were still on that crappy boat.

"Danny, are you alright?" And that's Kono's concerned voice, followed by Chin's, "Are you feeling okay, bra?"  
He may have snapped at them in response, but it's just so inexplicably irritating to see them hovering over him, couldn't they just leave him alone for a minute to get his breath back and stop coughing? 

God, his head is spinning and his stomach lurches in nausea. Maybe he'd swallowed some of the sea water? 

"What happened?" he asks faltering, when he abruptly remembers the oh so epic realisation of the connection between his not-quite-stomach bug and Steve's stupid smile. He glances at his partner, can't stop himself really, and notices that Steve is kneeling right next to him and looks more like a drenched rat than the image of tough guy he usually projects. "Why are you wet?" he adds wobbly.

A pronounced scowl greets his question and Steve looks seriously pissed in a pale, sickly kind of way.  
"I'm wet because I jumped after you, when you fainted and fell back into the ocean. "

"I did not faint!" Danny tries to protest, but ends up coughing the most part. Shouting is doing nothing for his raw throat. Good to know. 

"You so did! Like a damsel in distress", Kono says with a smile, yet when he focuses his gaze on her, he can see that she, too, looks shaky.

"What's wrong? Why are you all acting like this?" he manages to ask, voice scratchy, somehow moving his lips into the correct syllables, despite feeling weak and ill. He knows the words are garbled and not very clear, but he hopes they understand anyway. Perhaps Steve has done a course in lip reading?

And wow, can their looks get anymore worried? They look like the grim reaper is standing next to him, ready to take him wherever. 

"You've been shot, Danny." His eyes wander to Chin at this pronouncement and that's when he notices that Steve is pressing some sort of cloth to his side, just beneath his left arm. There's no real pain though, only a weird awareness of the wound. That can't be good, right? Maybe it is the combination of shock and the plunge into water? 

"Just a graze", Steve grits out through his teeth and Danny wants to say something like 'oh, that not enough for you, McGarrett? The graze of a bullet just an unimportant owie for the tough Navy Seal?' It takes a moment for him to register that his partner was trying to be reassuring, and Steve really doesn't look so good. 

"You okay?" he mumbles, slurring the words. 

"Fine. Just lay still, Danno, okay? We'll get you to a hospital as soon as we can, it's not long to the beach now. "

Damn it, he doesn't want to worry them, wants to be or at least appear to be strong and unhurt. That's bullshit though, because he notes his vision dimming, can see the blackness at the edges and barely a second later unconsciousness greets him. 

***

He wakes up to a steady beeping noise and the stale, antiseptic smell of hospital.  
A look to the right reveals Steven's form planted upon one of those uncomfortable, wooden chairs visitors are presented with. It's dark in the room, so probably nighttime and Steve seems to be dozing. Danny gazes around the room, noting another empty bed to the right and flowers on the table connecting to his bed. He wonders who would think of getting him those, it's a bouquet of gorgeous sunflowers with a red bow wrapped around.

"Grace brought them, when she and Rachel visited earlier", Steve says apparently awake and reading his thoughts.

"Oh, they're nice", he acknowledges. They really are, however even if they were half-wilted, ugly things, his daughter choosing them for him, would have rendered them beautiful. 

"How are you doing?"

"Alright. "  
He can feel the painkillers working in his system, so the pain isn't too bad. At least he can feel some now, though it's not necessarily an improvement. Steve still looks pale and concerned though, so it naturally falls to Danny to try and snap him out of it.  
"With you around, I've kind of gotten used to getting shot at", he jokes lightly. Instead of laughing though, Steve flinches and guilt flares across his face. 

Now that, that was just unacceptable. He doesn't intend to make Steve responsible for a random, stray shot and he has to tell him, before his partner gets a chance to beat himself up about it. 

"Not your fault", he grunts out, "could you get me a glass of water, please? My throat's pretty dry."

"Sure."  
Steve still looks tense, but in no time they're snipping at each other again and the awkwardness recedes. They spent some time sharing their favourite jokes and Danny feels very accomplished when his rendition startles a loud, happy laugh from the man.

That's when his stomach decides to throw in its own two cents, muscles fluttering suggestively. Now that he realises what it all means, it's doubly difficult to ignore the sensation.

And isn't that a sucker punch? To have these feelings built up for years without ever really noticing or analysing them. For god's sake he'd been in relationships, no wonder, that never seemed to work out. He blushes slightly.

"Hey Steve", he murmurs softly, "how about you get some sleep, buddy? Been here often enough to know the hospital chairs are damned uncomfortable." Steve just clenches his jaw stubbornly, ready to protest, so Danny says to nip out in the bud, "Who's going to catch all those bad guys, if you, commander, are strung-out at work? "

Steve promptly replies in his usual Navy Seal persona, "Danno, I can handle a little sleep deprivation."

"Great. You can also handle a little sleep then."  
As expected, he wins that argument, like he always does when hurt. Sometimes Steve seems to be incapable of arguing with hurt people, which must have really sucked in the army, navy, whatever. 

"Take care, Danny. "

"Always." Danny grins up at him and Steve gives him another stomach-clenching smile before taking his leave. 

Yeah, so that's it.  
He went to Hawaii for his daughter, gave up everything for that and would do it all again in a heartbeat. He'd go to the ends of the world for Gracie. He would have stayed forever on this pineapple-infested island, even while hating it, just to be close to his little girl. 

Yet joining Five-O changed everything. He didn't know what _ohana_ meant before coming here and if somebody had told him, he would have laughed at the notion.  
Kono, Chin and Steve are his friends and they've gone through so much crazy, bad stuff, it really isn't far off to call them his family.  
And Kamekona and Max of course. 

Somehow Oahu has become his home and though he misses New Jersey from time to time, Hawaii and its people have wormed themselves into his heart. 

And Steve, well.  
Grace is his life, but Steve is the sun he'd inadvertently centered himself around. Without him there would be no spark, no action and not nearly enough fun.

In truth he only wants for Steve to be happy. Whether that's with Catherine or someone else, doesn't really matter. 

And if something deep within him points out that his partner seems the happiest with Danny in tow, he doesn't exactly disagree.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I had a lot of fun writing this! Just saying, leaving kudos and comments is awesome! ;)


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